


Heart Crisis

by captainamergirl



Category: General Hospital (TV 1963)
Genre: AU pairing, Alternate History, CRam or is it McCruz, F/M, Rare Characters, Rare Pairings, Reimagined, Unconventional Relationship, metro court crisis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:54:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28105059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: A re-imagining of the 2007 Metro Court crisis. {Sam/Cruz endgame}
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" McCall/Cruz Rodriguez
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. The Death of a Dream

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Cruz & Sam fic about what could have been. I was always intrigued by their chemistry so here is my attempt to tell a story about them falling for each other in unlikely circumstances.
> 
> The saga opens with them meeting up on the docks before the Metro Court hostage crisis of 2007, and flows into the story of the crisis (told my way) and the aftermath. Someone will die, I believe, but it won't be Sam or Cruz lol

**Ch. 1: The Death of a Dream**  
  
Sam McCall stood on the docks looking out over the water. There was a brisk chill in the late-winter air but she barely noticed it, even though she was not wearing a jacket. Her black pea-coat was crumpled up on the wooden planks at her feet, along with her car keys and over-stuffed purse.

Sam was currently tossing around the idea of jumping into the icy water and plunging so far down she would never come up. What difference did it make if she died anyway? Her dream had died today. Her dream of sharing a baby with Jason – of having that unbreakable bond between them – was gone forever. According to Dr. Kelly Lee, Sam would never be able to have a child and that cut her deeply.  
  
So deeply that there was a physical ache in her chest. Her stomach also felt twisted up in knots and she felt weak in her bones. A lump settled in her throat as a thin line of tears trailed down her bronze cheeks. What would it be like to end it all right then? Would anyone miss her – would Jason? He had been so elusive for the past few months; forever running off when she tried to get close to him – saying he had to go to work or go see Carly and the boys, or do Sonny’s bidding yet again …  
  
She couldn’t help but think that he was distancing himself from her on purpose - not only physically but emotionally as well. A part of her would always believe – despite his claims – that he still blamed her for sleeping with Ric that night last summer. She would never get over what she had done so why should he?  
  
And the other part of her looked for an external reason for his behavior. She tended to blame his distance on one person in particular: Elizabeth Webber. That woman was always coming around the penthouse, acting like she owned the place, and was constantly in Sam and Jason’s faces. She judged Sam even more harshly than Sam judged her, and maybe Elizabeth’s biases against her were rubbing off on Jason. Maybe she was polluting his mind against Sam …  
  
Whatever it was, Sam didn’t want to think about it. Yet all she could do was think. That’s what she did when Jason was gone for hours and she wasn’t working at the Metro Court. Thinking was dangerous for her and if she would have listened better to her adoptive father, Cody McCall, she never would have learned to think for herself at all. He had always said she was too pretty to use her mind; she should just do as she was told.  
  
Well, no one could tell Sam not to care. Not to care that her dream of carrying a child inside her – of loving and nurturing a life of her very own; of having someone belong to her and having someone to belong to – might as well be swimming at the bottom of the harbor along with the rotting corpse of whoever happened to be the latest casualty of the mob wars that had run rampant in this town for longer than Sam had lived there.  
  
Her heart ached; and worse yet, her arms ached. They cried out to hold a little warm body in them; to rock it and put him or her over her shoulder and pat their back and soothe their tears …  
  
Tears of her own rushed down her cheeks with greater force now and she felt a sob well up in her throat. She covered her mouth to keep it down although there was no one else out tonight dumb enough to brave this chilly air.  
  
Except for one person.  
  
“Miss McCall, are you okay?” a voice behind her asked. It sounded vaguely familiar but Sam couldn’t place it and didn’t care. She just wanted to be alone with her misery. That was all the company she wanted right now.  
  
“I’m fine,” she said hoping they would go away. But they didn’t.  
  
Instead, Detective Cruz Rodriguez moved into her line of vision and stared at her with warm brown eyes that made Sam want to cry even harder because she saw not only perplexion in them but out-and-out pity in their liquid depths.  
  
“You don’t look fine, Miss McCall,” he observed, taking in the sight of the little brunette with a tear-streaked face and flushed skin. “You do look cold though.” He said, noticing her goose-pimpled flesh. He started to remove his jacket and pass it to her.  
  
Sam held out a hand to stop him. “No thank you. I don’t need your charity, detective,” she said in a harsh voice. “I have a jacket of my own as you can see.” She gestured to it beside her feet.  
  
He nodded. “Then why aren’t you wearing it? It’s something like 30 below out here today.”  
  
“That’s not your concern,” she said. She rushed to pick up her things and started stalking away.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Cruz was tempted to let Sam run off by herself but he knew deep down that he just couldn’t. He couldn’t let her get on the road and drive in her obviously very distraught condition. He had a duty to protect the citizens of this town.  
  
His own issues had brought him to the docks tonight and he wanted to be alone as well but yet he found himself dashing after her. “Miss McCall!” He called. “Wait up!”  
  
She was already halfway up the stairs and he went up after her. “Why are you following me?” she demanded, swinging around and poking a finger in his chest. “Can’t you tell when someone just wants to be alone?”  
  
“Of course I can. It’s just that … well, you don’t look like you should be alone right now.”  
  
She scoffed. “Have you changed careers, Detective? Are you my therapist now?”  
  
He shook his head. “No. I’m not trying to be intrusive. It’s just that you shouldn’t drive in your condition.”  
  
“I will be fine. I have to get to work,” she said and started to turn around.  
  
He caught her wrist and gently pulled her back. “But you see as an enforcer of the law it wouldn’t be responsible for me to allow someone as upset as you clearly are to get onto the road where innocent people are traveling.”  
  
Sam sighed. “I will be fine.”  
  
“Just let me drive you.”  
  
“No thank you! I’ll be fine,” she repeated.  
  
“I insist,” he said, taking her by the arm and pulling her along to his car despite her protests.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
During the first five minutes of the drive to the Metro Court, Sam sat beside Cruz in his department-issued Ford Explorer, in stony silence. He tried several times to coax her into a conversation but she was unwilling to talk. He didn’t know why he cared if she spoke or not. She didn’t matter to him. As far as he was concerned she was just the mobster’s little kept woman.  
  
And yet …  
  
He did care. She reminded him of someone he had once loved and had tried so hard to forget.  
  
“Look I know what it’s like to have an absolutely shitty day,” Cruz said. He had been hassled and harassed by Ric Lansing all day over a case they didn’t see eye-to-eye on until he was ready to tear his own hair out. And that had been the least burdensome of the weights on his mind …  
  
Sam shot him a dirty look and bundling up in her jacket (which he had forced her to put on); she turned to face the window. She didn’t say anything – just hunched her shoulders and tried to ignore him.  
  
“I know because I am having one of those days right now, Miss McCall,” he said.  
  
Sam glanced at him. “Oh did someone spit on your badge?”  
  
Cruz shook his head. “You’re not making this very easy …”  
  
“What?” She asked, peering at him with glistening chocolate-brown eyes.  
  
“To relate to you,” he replied with a shrug.  
  
She frowned. “Why would you want to relate to me anyway, Detective?” she asked. “Aren’t I just the local criminal’s kept woman?”  
  
He coughed a little in surprise. She seemed to have read his mind. “You’re more than that I’m sure. It’s just … Never mind …”  
  
“No, what?”  
  
“Never mind, I said! I just wanted you to know that just because we seem to be from two very different worlds doesn’t mean we necessarily are. You’re having a bad day and so am I.”  
  
Sam rolled her eyes and rested her head on the frosty windowpane. “I don’t want to have this conversation, Detective. I don’t want to get along with you or commiserate with you or relate, or whatever it was you called it. Just let me be miserable all by myself.”  
  
“What about your boyfriend?” Cruz asked. “Shouldn’t he be there for you?”  
  
Sam glared at him, her eyes flashing. “He’s busy okay? He’s really busy.”  
  
“Gunning down innocent people is a lot of work, I guess,” Cruz agreed.  
  
Sam fumed, cheeks alighting with red spots. “Stop this car right now!”  
  
“No.”  
  
“Stop it! Or – or I’ll shoot you with your own gun,” she said, making a move to grab it out of his holster but he managed to block her hand in time.  
  
“Don’t even think about it, Miss McCall,” he said.  
  
“Then stop the damn car,” she snapped.  
  
“Look calm down, okay? We’re almost to the MC and then you can be free of me until the next time you come to the police station to bail out your lover,” he said.  
  
She hissed and went for the gun again but this time he blocked her hand by covering it with his own. He let it rest there for a moment, feeling a warm tingling sensation radiate from the back of his hand to his fingertips before she violently yanked it away. “You’re an ass!” she shouted.  
  
He rolled his eyes. “I was just trying to be nice to you.”  
  
“This is how you ‘be nice’ to someone, Detective?” she asked. “I think it’s time you work on your people skills because your ‘nice’ side really blows chunks.”  
  
He held up a hand to halt her ranting. “I saw you out on the docks all alone, crying, and I had the audacity to think ‘maybe she needs someone to care enough to talk to her for a few minutes’. I am such a bad, bad man, I know.”  
  
Sam sighed. “If I tell you what’s wrong will you promise not to tell everyone at the station until it’s all around town?” she asked. Suddenly she felt the need to unburden herself and at that moment she didn’t care who she did it too. She just needed to talk – to expunge the darkness eating away at her soul.  
  
“I promise,” he said solemnly. He tapped his badge over his heart. “Policemen’s honor.”  
  
“I don’t want anyone to know this but I can’t … I can't have children,” she admitted in a small voice.  
  
He took a deep breath as he began to drum the wheel anxiously with his thumbs. “Why – why is it such a big deal if people know that?”  
  
“Because! Because it means that I can’t give Jason something that every other woman could and that hurts me. I don’t want everyone knowing I am … damaged …” Her voice trailed off and he heard fresh tears in her voice.  
  
“Miss McCall, you are not damaged because you can’t have children. Not everyone can you know. Or some people had them and lost them ….” Now his own voice trailed off and he was unaware that his eyes had taken on a faraway look.  
  
They rode along in silence for a moment and then Sam said, “I have a feeling we aren’t talking about me anymore.”  
  
Cruz took a deep breath. “I have a son … had a son, actually. He died of pneumonia when he was just two months old. Next week would have been his seventh birthday. Sometimes it gets to me even now,” he admitted with a shrug of his broad shoulders.  
  
“Of course it does,” Sam said, thinking of her own loss. “That is something I don’t think you ever get over … Where is … I mean, what happened to his mother?”  
  
“She left me about three years ago. She said she couldn’t take the ‘silence’ anymore. The way we just stopped talking and communicating with each other.”  
  
Sam nodded. “But, detective, I don’t understand something.”  
  
“I don’t understand most things,” he admitted. It was not an attempt at humor because he was feeling anything but funny at the moment.  
  
“You said you just stopped talking to your wife but you just told me all this and we barely know each other … Why?” she asked, peering at him under long, thick lashes.  
  
“I don’t know … I just saw you on the docks and something about you … I just saw myself in you for a second. I don’t know why.”  
  
Sam nodded. “Well, I’m glad you had someone to talk to. That’s a lot to carry around for so long.”  
  
“That wasn’t supposed to happen – me telling you my woe-is-me sob story.”  
  
“Well, it’s okay because I guess I needed to hear it. Not that I wanted to … it’s just now I don’t feel so alone I guess.”  
  
Cruz glanced at her and gave her a little smile. “I’m glad, Miss McCall. Because trust me, it’s no fun being alone.”  
  
Sam nodded. “Don’t I know it?”  
  
Sam gave him a little smile and then turned back to face the window. They drove the rest of the way to the Metro Court in silence.


	2. The Crisis Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note: I used a lot of dialogue from the show and broke up the sequence events for new plot twists. PLEASE REVIEW and tell me what you think. I worked really hard on this chapter. Thanks.

**Chapter 2: The Crisis Begins**  
  
Sam was working at the desk at the Metro Court, chatting with Maxie on the side, when suddenly the door burst opened and screams of terror filled the room. Sam looked up and saw what appeared to be at least seven men in black masks descend on the hotel.  
  
They quickly filled the room and locked the doors, two standing guard, so no one could come in or out. A man’s accented voice came from behind one of the black masks. Sam couldn’t place the accent. English maybe. Australian?  
  
All she could do at the moment was throw up her hands and watch in stunned silence as the group of men circled guests and employees alike.  
  
“All right, boys and girls. Here we go,” the man with the accented voice said. "Everybody just be a dear and stay right where you are! This is a robbery. Cooperate and it will be over in five minutes. Now let’s begin.”  
  
“This is insane,” Maxie muttered and Sam’s hand immediately shot slowly forward to hit the emergency button that would radio the police.  
  
The man in the mask saw and aimed his gun at her face. “Excuse me, _excuse me._ How badly do you want to be Employee of the Month?”  
  
“Very badly,” Sam hissed but she moved away from the alarm button.  
  
“Very prudent,” the man said. “I doubt you're being paid enough to risk your own life.” He turned to face Carly. “How do you inspire such loyalty and teamwork from your employees?”  
  
Carly rolled her eyes at him and sighed. She looked as pissed off as Sam felt. "Everyone on my staff, do as you're told. No heroics.”  
  
The man looked at Carly, and then back at Sam. He had cold, soulless eyes. “I appreciate your support, darling.”  
  
“You can take anything you want; just hurry up and get the fuck out of here,” Carly hissed.  
  
The man nodded. “And I intend to - starting with cell phones, P.D.A.S, and pagers, please.”  
  
The men walked around with clean white linen pillowcases collecting the items from everyone. Out of the corner of her eye, Sam saw Elizabeth begin to flip open her phone behind her back and start to dial. She started to signal to her to stop but unfortunately, one of the goons saw it as well and ripped it out of her hand, shoving her back and hissing: “No phone calls!”  
  
Elizabeth stumbled back and landed on a chair. “Ok, ok, all right.”  
  
The man raised his hand to slap her across the face and Emily Quartermaine screamed at him to stop. “Don’t do it, please. She's pregnant.”  
  
“We wouldn’t want to hurt the little coochy-coo now would we, Five?” the accented man said. “Just let her be, but keep an eye on her. The hormonal ones are always the biggest troublemakers.”  
  
Sam stood by and watched as everyone looked terrified. Once again her hand reached for the button but this time Maxie caught her hand and gave her a look that said _“don’t even think about it!”_  
  
XoXoXo  
  
As the goons came around gathering the personal effects of their hostages, Sonny leaned into Carly and whispered, “You know that guy with the accent?”  
  
Carly shook her head. “No, but his voice does sound very familiar to me.”  
  
One of the goons walked over to Father Mateo who was sitting on the floor silently muttering prayers to a god Sam was sure had stopped listening to any of them a long time ago. For a brief, spiteful moment, she wished that one of the goons would just do away with the lookalike of the man who had terrorized her and Jason for so many months. The man that had nearly cost her her life, and the love of the man she would have never wanted to live without.  
  
“You don't look like no priest I've ever seen,” the goon said.  
  
“I know, but I am,” Father Mateo answered, bowing his head and continuing to pray.  
  
Carly leaned back into Sonny. “What do you really think is going on here?”  
  
Sonny shook his head and folded his arms across his chest. “I have no idea, but I am sure this is no simple robbery. These guys are most likely after something. I just have no idea what.”  
  
“Well I hope they get it before someone gets hurt,” Carly said.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
“Hand it over,” one of the goons said to Sam, motioning to her star necklace.  
  
Sam shook her head. “No. No way.”  
  
The goon stared at her with cold eyes and she sighed. “Come on. Please; my fiancée gave me this and it means a lot to me.”  
  
“That’s nice,” the goon said and ripped it off her neck, throwing it into his makeshift sack. Sam silently fumed and felt sick all at the same time. That necklace was a sign of Jason’s love for her. It was a sign of the love and faith and trust between them. Without it, she suddenly felt so unsure of everything. She knew one shouldn’t put stock in material possessions but she believed that somehow that star had brought her and Jason back together at the right time in their lives.  
  
Father Mateo walked over to her and leaned on the desk, setting down his ever-present Bible. “Please listen to me, Miss McCall. They can take the necklace, but not it's meaning. You have to calm down.”  
  
Sam felt like spitting in his face. “If you don't get away the hell away from me, I'm going to ask if they can kill you first.”  
  
He sighed. “Violence begets violence.”  
  
“You would know; you and that psycho Manny,” Sam said.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Another one of the goons walked over to Carly. “Your rings,” he said holding out his hand. Carly ripped off one of the rings and tossed it in his sack. “The other one, too.”  
  
Carly shook her head adamantly. “Hell no.”  
  
Sonny reached for her hand and started to remove the ring himself.  
  
“Don’t you dare, Sonny,” she hissed. “Jax gave me this ring and I'm going to be wearing it on our wedding day.”  
  
Sonny started to rip the ring off again but she shoved his hand away. “Carly, give him the ring,” he said with an elongated sigh.  
  
“No! I said _no.”_  
  
Now Sonny was fuming himself. His face was flushed with color. “Give him the damn ring!”  
  
Carly shook her head adamantly. “No!”  
  
The accented man stalked over to her and held his gun out in front of her face. “Is there a problem, Mrs. Corinthos?”  
  
Carly nodded. “Yes. You can have my credit cards, you can have my cash. You can have anything you want in this hotel, but you're not getting my ring.”  
  
The man shook his head. “Well, you see, if I allow you to keep the ring, what about the other people here? It would be unfair, wouldn't it?”  
  
“This is my engagement ring. You have to understand ….”  
  
He held out his open palm. “I'm afraid I must insist, darling.”  
  
Carly rolled her eyes. She ripped off the ring, tossing it in his face. “Fine. Have it. I’ll just get a new one.”  
  
“Thank you, darling.” He nodded and walked away.  
  
Carly flipped her gaze on Sonny. “Damn you, Sonny. That ring means a lot to me. You know that.”  
  
Sonny shrugged. “As you said, you can always get a new one.”  
  
“It's not the same,” Carly snapped.  
  
Sonny rolled his eyes and leaned into her. “Nevermind that. Did you recognize his voice yet?”  
  
Carly shook her head. “No. Maybe if we could get him talking some more …”  
  
Sonny was the one shaking his head now. “No. No, Carly. From now on, you don’t try any more tricks.”  
  
“What the hell is going on here?” Carly asked.  
  
Sonny shrugged. “This has something to do with Alcazar, I’m sure of it.”  
  
“Lorenzo?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“What does this have to do with him?”  
  
“I found out he’s working for some government agency. He was waiting for a shipment.”  
  
“Of what?”  
  
“I don't know, but he was willing to kill me to make sure it got through. Did you see him around the hotel?”  
  
Carly shook her head. “No … But that reminds me … He was around earlier asking about the security in the vault.”  
  
“Well did he put anything into the vault?” Sonny asked.  
  
“I don't know.”  
  
“Who would know?”  
  
“The assistant manager would know.”  
  
“Okay well, where is he?”  
  
“He's over there,” Carly said pointing to a man standing nervously in the corner looking about ready to piss his pants.  
  
Suddenly Carly stomped away from Sonny and over to the accented goon. "Where are you going?” Sonny screamed at her.  
  
Carly ignored Sonny. “Take what you want and get the hell out of my hotel, Mister …. Whoever the hell you are.”  
  
“Call me One,” the man said.  
  
“Fine, One it is. Now get whatever the hell you came for and get out, or –“  
  
“Or what?” He demanded, and she could hear a sick, perverse smile in his voice.  
  
“Or I get really mad. I am really pissy when I miss even twenty minutes of my beauty sleep,” she hissed and suddenly her hand shot out, grabbing for the bottom of her mask.  
  
Robin Scorpio and Elizabeth both screamed _“Carly, don’t!”_ at the same time.  
  
One immediately rammed his gun up in Carly’s jaw. “I think that that little impulsive streak of yours gets you into lots of trouble.”  
  
Carly didn’t shrink away even when One cocked the gun under her chin. “I own this hotel and I'm responsible for everybody in it. I'm not going to let you hurt or bully anybody else.”  
  
Elizabeth stood off to the side with Emily. They clasped hands. “What the heck is she doing?” Elizabeth whispered.  
  
Emily sighed and squeezed Elizabeth’s hand. “I'm not sure, but Carly's going to get herself killed if she keeps this up.”  
  
Alan Quartermaine stood off to the corner shaking his head. “Carly, have you lost all your damn marbles if you ever had any, to begin with? What do you think is going to happen if you were to pull his mask off?”  
  
One shoved her away so hard she nearly toppled over. “She's counting on the fact that I won't kill any of you if you can ID my face. But I promise you all, that is a very dangerous and gross assumption.”  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Sam stood by feeling frustrated and anxious. She couldn’t believe all of this shit was still going on. Why hadn’t anyone noticed the guards at the door yet and the strings of cable cords and chains on the doors? Her hand inched towards the buzzer again just as two of the goons stomped over.  
  
“I’m bored with all this,” One said. “Get the little blonde twit and go get our merchandise.”  
  
“Hey, I’m no twit,” Maxie screeched. “Hey, stop feeling me up!” she hissed as both of the men grabbed her and yanked her forward.  
  
Sam reached out to help but One saw and shoved her back with a kick to the stomach. She heard her cousin Nikolas cry out but Sam held up a hand. “I’m fine,” she said through a wheeze. “Just fucking fine.”  
  
“Good. Because the fun is just beginning,” One said. Sam waited until his back was turned and then immediately jammed her hand down on the vault button, mistaking it for the alarm to signal the police.  
  
A loud, piercing mechanical wail pierced the room and One turned to glare at Sam with steely blue eyes. “What the hell did you just do?” He demanded.  
  
Sam didn’t respond. She would rather stay there and let him wander around looking like an even bigger ass.  
  
One suddenly whipped her across the face with the butt of his gun. Her head twisted to the side momentarily and she felt a trail of blood stream down her nose. It could be broken, but she didn’t care. She just turned her head back and prepared to pounce should he attempt to hit her again. Sam had been up against bigger and more intimidating guys than this little twerp and she could take him down.  
  
One trained the gun on her face. “I wouldn’t try anything else if I were you, Miss. I will have no problem spraying your little gray cells out across the wall behind you.”  
  
Father Mateo rushed over and grabbed One’s arm. “No, no! Please don't hurt her! She doesn't mean any – “  
  
The goon standing just beyond One cocked his rifle and shouted, “Hey, get down!” One shook off Mateo and then the other goon plugged him in the shoulder.  
  
“Ah!” he screamed, dropping to the ground.  
  
Sam had wished him dead many times but at that moment, she wished she could take it all back. He had just saved her life and could die for it if he bled to death.  
  
The goon prepared to shoot Father Mateo again but One held up his hand. "Two, enough!”  
  
Suddenly another goon came running out of the back hallway and sprinted over to One. “Where’s the briefcase, Five?” One demanded.  
  
“It's in the vault. The door started closing. I thought Three was right behind me, but he didn’t get out.”  
  
“What about Maxie?” Robin asked.  
  
Five shook his head. “She’s stuck in there with Three.”  
  
 _If he hurts her, he’ll answer to me,_ Sam thought, pressing the sleeve of her white blouse over her dripping nose. It came away soaked with a seeping red stain.  
  
One reached out and smacked Five across the face. “You left the briefcase in the vault?”  
  
“The door slid closed and I couldn’t get to it.”  
  
“Stupid idiot!” One hissed.  
  
Carly suddenly spoke up, looking almost smug. “Well, congratulations to you all. You won't be able to get into the vault for the next 12 hours.”  
  
Sonny shook his head and faced One. “Things are about to go seriously wrong. You still got time to cut your losses. But you're going to have to leave now. Someone is going to see you eventually. We won’t press charges if you go now.”  
  
“Oh no, no, no, Mr. Corinthos. You are all stuck here with us for the next 12 hours. And I promise it’s going to be a lot of fun!” He cackled.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Jason Morgan was on his way to pick up his best friend Carly for a trip down to the Dominic Republic so she could divorce his other best friend, Sonny. Jason didn’t want to be involved in another one of their dramas but he couldn’t stop caring about either of them.  
  
He climbed out of his car and sprinted up the steps to the Metro Court. Right away he noticed something was very wrong. It was eerily quiet outside and there was no foot traffic coming and going as usual.  
  
Then he noticed that the windows were nearly all painted over. He did manage to see in a crack just in time to see a masked man strike Sam across the face with the butt of his gun. A surge of red rage boiled inside him as he whispered her name. “Sam!”  
  
He wanted to figure out a way to get inside there but he knew for the moment he was outnumbered. He hurried away from the entrance and ducked around the building flipping open his cell phone as he silently begged whoever may be listening to get Sam and Carly out of there alive.  
  
He would have been even more panicked if he realized that the mother of his unknown child was also trapped inside and beginning to experience the first thrust of labor pains.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
It was a boring night at the station. Cruz and Lucky had gone through all their paperwork and were sitting at their desks playing table hockey. “Score,” Lucky crowed as a little paperclip sailed into the makeshift net they had crafted out of a soda can rings. He sighed. “You are no fun tonight. You’re all spaced out.”  
  
“Uh, sorry,” Cruz said, loosening his tie.  
  
“Uh-huh,” Lucky said and smiled. “I know that look.”  
  
“What look?” Cruz asked, sitting straighter in his chair.  
  
“That look – the one on your face right now. You’re thinking about someone. I am guessing a lady. A hot one. Am I right?” Lucky said with a shit-eating grin.  
  
Lucky was, of course, very right. There was a woman on his mind tonight – a stunning brunette with doe eyes that haunted his thoughts. But Cruz wasn’t about to admit that to anyone. He never talked about his feelings - let alone with other guys. Even ones he liked, like his partner. Cruz was still surprised he had opened himself up earlier to Sam the way he had.  
  
Cruz jumped out of his chair. “Unlike you, Detective Spencer, I don’t allow women to occupy my mind when lives are at stake.”  
  
Lucky laughed. “Uh-huh …”  
  
Suddenly Mac Scorpio came charging into the room from his office. “Boys, we have a major situation brewing down at the Metro Court. I need every man on duty.”  
  
Lucky looked panicked as Cruz suddenly felt. “What’s happening, Mac?” Lucky asked.  
  
“Jason Morgan just called us. There is a hostage situation at the hotel!”  
  
“Ohmigod,” Lucky said and he and Cruz and all of their co-workers rushed for the locked weapons cabinet. “Elizabeth is there tonight at that fundraiser.”  
  
“Sam is there too,” Cruz said feeling a sinking sensation settle in the pit of his stomach. “God willing they both get out of there alive and in one piece!”


End file.
